People
Founding Father. Authored the Declaration of the Independence. First Secretary of State (1779–1781). Second Vice President (1797–1801). Helped found the Democratic-Republican Party in 1794.
Thomas Jefferson
Announced the colonies’ official break from England, making the United States a country in its own right. It contained a preamble that heavily reflected Enlightenment philosophy regarding natural rights, as well as 27 grievances and charges of wrongdoing directed at the crown and Parliament.
Declaration of Independence
Who was the Frenchman who greatly aided the Americans in his role as a commander and advisor to George Washington during the War?
Marquis de Lafayette
Activists for independence from the British Empire. Mostly young New Englanders and Virginians.
Patriots
Founding Father and co-author of the Federalist Papers. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, he set out to repair the nation’s credit and overall financial health. Favored a strong executive, strong military, and political centralization.
Alexander Hamilton
King of Great Britain and Ireland. He reigned from 1760 to 1820. Dismissed attempts by the Second Continental Congress to peacefully resolve their conflict with Parliament on the grounds that the colonies had no authority to form such a body.
King George III
Treaty which officially ended the American Revolutionary War. The U.S. agreed to repay debts to British merchants and promised not to punish Loyalists who chose to remain in the United States. Formal recognition of the United States as an independent country.
Treaty of Paris
An eighteenth-century philosophical and intellectual movement which prized reason. It challenged traditional notions of reflexive obedience to the Church and to monarchy, and laid the groundwork for the scientific revolution and Industrial Revolution.
The Enlightenment
- washington
- british blunders
Second President. Served 1791–1801. First Vice President (1789–1797). Lobbied for declaring independence at the Continental Congress. Signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the armed forces during the Quasi-War.
John Adams
A British philosopher whose theory of natural rights challenged the absolute and divine rule of kings and queens by asserting that all men should be ruled by natural laws, and that sovereignty was derived from the will of those governed.
John Locke
The first constitution of the U.S., drafted alongside the Declaration of Independence but by a separate committee. It strongly favored states’ rights and forbid Congress from levying taxes.
Articles of Confederation
An assembly of delegates from across the Thirteen colonies (1775–1781). It passed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.
Second Continental Congress
Significant battle of the War because the American victory led to the French sending supplies
Battle of Saratoga
A meeting that took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Ostensibly called to amend the Articles of Confederation, the majority of the delegates arrived with the intention to simply draft a new constitution, one which is still in use to the modern-day.
Constitutional Convention
A general in the American Revolutionary War. He participated in the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of Saratoga. Most infamously remembered for defection to the British, which caused his name to become a byword for treason.
A July 1775 statement by the Continental Congress that reasserted colonial loyalty to King George III and asked him to intervene with Parliament on the colonies’ behalf. The king refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Congress to make any such request.
Olive Branch Petition
An insurrection in Massachusetts (1786–1787) over oppressive taxes and debt collectors. It helped spur the Constitutional Convention.
Shay's Rebellion
Known as the "shot heard around the world," where was the first battle(s) of the American Revolution?
Lexington and Concord
Founding Father from Virginia. Known as the “Father of the Constitution” for his role in drafting it and the Bill of Rights. Contributed to the Federalist Papers.
James Madison
British general. Led the British response to Pontiac’s Rebellion. Served as military governor of Massachusetts (1774–1775) to enforce the Intolerable Acts. Led British forces at Lexington and Concord, as well as Bunker Hill. Replaced in 1775 by William Howe.
Thomas Gage
A rare triumph under the Articles of Confederation, it established guidelines for attaining statehood: territories with at least 60,000 people could apply for statehood. If accepted by Congress, the new state would have equal status with other states. It banned slavery north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi, thereby guaranteeing future free states in the Midwest.
Northwest Ordinance of 1785
Name three of the taxes placed on the colonists by Britain and what they did
I will let you know
Where did the British finally surrender to the American colonists? Which British general surrendered?
Yorktown; Cornwallis
Which side did Native Americans mostly support during the Revolution? Why?
Ms.Strong will let you know if you need to feel sad about yourself or not